This Won't Hurt a Bit

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Why is healthcare so expensive?"This Won't Hurt a Bit" is a short film that tells the all too familiar tale of American healthcare. A patient enters a hospital with a migraine headache, unaware of the costs his visit will incur on the path to a diagnosis. He learns much more than he bargained for in this comedy on unaffordable care.

Mary Harron

MARY HARRON studied English literature at Oxford and worked as a journalist and documentary filmmaker before making her first feature film, “I Shot Andy Warhol.” She also wrote and directed the films, “American Psycho,” “The Notorious Bettie Page,” and “The Moth Diaries.” For television, Mary has directed episodes of television series including “Oz,” “The L Word,” “Six Feet Under,” “Six Degrees” and “Big Love” and recently directed the Lifetime movie “Anna Nicole.” She is currently working on a film about the last years of Salvador Dali.

Director's Note

“When researching the subject of U.S. healthcare, I came across a story about a young man who arrived at the emergency room with a headache and left with a $15,000 bill. I asked writer/comedienne Cynthia Kaplan to help me write a little drama about a patient who gets lost in the funhouse of American healthcare. It would be set in a mythical hospital where all the staff have played doctors and nurses on television.

Kerry Bishe (Scrubs), Peter Jacobson (House), Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy), Laura Ceron (ER) and Nancy Giles (China Beach, CBS Saturday Morning) agreed to put on the scrubs once more. Lili Taylor (State of Mind) reprised her role as a therapist to try and mediate between the squabbling Ms. Insurance (Maddy Corman) and Mr. Pharmaceutical (Adam Goldberg) and the hapless patient (Will Janowitz). Finally, the inimitable Bob Balaban, came in to tell us some of the history of how this system came to be.

Before I started this project I knew U.S. healthcare was expensive, I knew it was infuriatingly complicated, but I had no idea why. Healthcare was something that deeply affected my life and my family, but I knew almost nothing about it. That’s what I love about WE THE ECONOMY - it makes you stop and look and think and then look again at something so familiar, until you realize that you’ve never really seen it before.”

Quiz

The government-provided healthcare program for the elderly is known as:

Medicare

Affordable Care

Medicaid

Blue Cross-Blue Shield

Medicare is our country’s health insurance program for people age 65 or older. The program helps with the cost of healthcare, but it does not cover all medical expenses, nor the cost of most long-term care. Medicare has been administered by the federal government since 1966.

Healthcare spending is a growing share of our economy because:

Our population is aging, and older people tend to have greater and more expensive health needs

When faced with a loved one’s need for healthcare, money is typically “no object” (demand is high)

Healthcare technology is always improving, and the latest technology is expensive

Total healthcare spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $4.8 trillion in 2021, up from $2.6 trillion in 2010 and $75 billion in 1970. To put it in context, this means that healthcare spending will account for nearly 20% of gross domestic product (GDP), or 1/5 of the U.S. economy, by 2021.

Twitter

You know what would make you feel more secure about Ebola and other dangerous medical concerns? Universal public healthcare. Time to grow up

@soulkhan

Anyone else get bombarded with spam emails from private healthcare firms at the mo? I get at least 5 a week.